Energy Conservation How To

This is free sharing of discoveries in matters of methods, materials and policies for energy conservation in our homes. Discoveries are mainly in work I do with business Phillip Norman Attic Access, in metro Portland, Oregon. Please see my web site for this work, with my contact information:
https://sites.google.com/site/phillipnormanatticaccess/

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Monday, June 1, 2020

THIS WEEK IN OFFSHORE WINDAerodyn-engineering has joined forces with utility EnBW to accelerate the commercial development of the radical 15MW Nezzy2 twin-rotor offshore floater. Eize de Vries met company representatives at the test site.

Caption:

Full-scale Nezzy2 will be ten times the size of this three-bladed prototype (Pic credit: Jan Oelker, aerodyn-engineering)

First paragraph for those who sign in:

A flooded gravel pit near the port of Bremerhaven in northern Germany provided the test site for the launch of the 1:10-scale Nezzy2 prototype. At full size, it will be more than 350 metres wide and 200 metres tall, but even at this scale, peaking at around 18 metres above the water level, it has the appearance of a “real thing”; and all striking details are in place, radically different from current industry practice.

Sunday, May 10, 2020

I will attend this webinar of my ASHRAE Chapter. I'm interested in the mass timber construction.May 14th, 2020 - 11:30am

ASHRAE Student Chapter

Addressing Embodied Carbon

Join our Portland State University Student Chapter for their Webinar.

Addressing embodied carbon – the carbon emissions that occur during the production and installation of building’s materials – is the next big design challenge for sustainable buildings. As more buildings approach the Net Zero Energy goal (to produce as much energy as they consume) the majority of lifetime carbon emissions for a building may actually be associated with embodied carbon. Join us to hear more about MEP engineers’ roles in addressing embodied carbon, how Glumac is prepared to help our clients in this area, and some of the strategies being deployed for decarbonization, like all-electric buildings, low Global-Warming-Potential refrigerants and mass timber construction.

In fact, from this Shawood web site, you will understand most of what was seen in January 2020 Las Vegas Convention Center events. Imagine how quickly a home can be assembled with engineered factory-built beam elements. Exterior walls have full freedom of window and door placement.

Know from the IBS presentation, that superior Bellburn porcelain tile siding is a very-visible element of this construction. Sample siding was on display. From the search, find this builderonline article:Chowa Living in Balance - February 26, 2020 LESSONS LEARNED: HERE ARE FIVE CRITICAL TAKE-AWAYS FROM THE 2020 BUILDER CONCEPT HOME BUILDING

Thursday, March 26, 2020

In October, 2018, I signed up with a solicitor at my door, for Blue Sky Usage , to: Support 100% Pacific Northwest renewable resources from Oregon, Washington and Idaho. The resource mix is likely to include wind (87%), biomass (2%), solar (10%) and geothermal (1%).The cost is about $8 more per month, (for typical customer), $0.0105 per kWh.Blue Sky is a program of PacifiCorp., Pacific Power, of Portland, OregonIt was a very questionable thing to do, where I was within weeks of turning over the house to renters.Over a 14 month period then, my renters reimbursed to me, these added costs paid:

At 3/26/2020, I reverse the cost to my renters, by sending a check of amount $65.59. With this, I advise them of this explanatory post. I don't trouble them to weigh in on virtue of the experiment. Where in this review I also summarize household contribution to Oregon's Public Purpose Fund , I treat both as involuntary carbon taxes . Please be patient here with the hyperlinks, and go there to my deeper writing on subjects if you can. I believe in carbon taxes broadly-defined, that energize public banking and that fund all infrastructure development including durable, most-efficient housing-as-a human-right. We must stop believing lies of the greedy most-affluent, that we are better off when self-interested-at-the-top investors are the printers of money, and design projects for their short-term gain. Those of us with assets on Wall Street, and I am not one of them, will see how their ride from the coat tails of the evil Ponzi schemers of an insane market, ends up.Lumping the two carbon taxes and knowing that the Public Purpose Charge, PPC, is 3% added to a bill, the Blue Sky Charge would similarly be computed as 8.2% of bill. An electricity carbon tax ofmore than 11% is quite large and yet is acceptable to more than 125,000 participants. I wonder why any of this should be acceptable to renters, where there is no scheme to produce personal benefits for them. If charges are stinky to renters-unaware, they must be stinky for anyone. Yes, the PPC is stinky too. Program managers and Oregon political leaders must know that PPC collections with no possible return to renters and unaware, is theft.Electricity Energy Conservation Improvements Charted for 22 Years(Including 14 months with Blue Sky):I have done very much to make my home-now-rental, energy-efficient, Electricity usage with a single occupant was reduced by half circa 2011, in replacing an electric clothes dryer with natural gas, getting rid of CRT displays, and full conversion to most-efficient LED downlights. Electricity usage is proportional to the number of adult occupants. Rising electricity billing rates act counter to the energy conservation. See that in the current winter, my renters used less electricity than the year before, yet bills went up. That change, not warned and not accepted, troubles me very much.

At May 17, 2020, apologize this so far is not instructive to my rental-home electric power utility, Pacific Power. I am bitter in knowing that a phone responder taking my Blue Sky cancellation admitted without apology, that Pacific Power finds added solar capacity is uneconomic. My cancellation then is with a vengeance. What is the good in investor profit from investment in some Montana wind turbine? I wasn't doing any good in promotion of solar capacity for my community, with lowered rates that might justify my renters making the Blue Sky contribution.

I recently was hit-upon in email by Pacific Power to make charitable contributions, perhaps a parallel of the Blue Sky deal. I replied with link to this post, unhappy. I said that charity is limited and must be done smartly. (This doesn't measure up.)

LENDING A HAND

To help struggling families and seniors, we will contribute $2 for every $1 donated by our customers to Oregon Energy Fund, making your donation go even further. We’ve already contributed to Oregon Energy Fund and together we can do more.

If you are able, please consider helping those in need of energy assistance by donating.

Says the concluding paragraph of the report of closing a coal power plant in North Dakota:

Cooperatively owned coal across the region, and the country, will continue to come up against the same economic shortfalls experienced by GRE, yet the member-centric, independent co-op business model remains uniquely positioned to lead rural communities through the transition. GRE has set the stage and shown that even in the midst of economic crisis, co-ops can take decisive action on behalf of their members and can lead the way toward a lower-cost, clean energy future.

Wednesday, March 25, 2020

Wonder: What are virtues of half-facepiece reusable respirators in the current coronavirus pandemic?

This has been my usual appearance working in attics and crawl spaces. At age 75, I need the glasses for acceptable vision, and value them as protection. I have been diligent with lungs protection. There is little added effort in breathing through the respirator.

Look inside a 3M Model 7502 half-mask respirator. Soft silicone comfortably conforms to my face. OSHA requires professional fitting, but that is simply with selection among three offered sizes, good-enough. Round silicone flappers (check valves) move inward with inhalation and close with exhalation. A rectangular flapper hinges outward with exhalation and block flow with inhalation. Simpler or older respirators may have a more-resistive round inhalation check at the front.

I paid $15 in 2009 for required "fitting" and OSHA training. I wear a Medium, of course. Please see much more about the fitting in a 3M training video for the less-comfortable 6000-series respirators.We in USA are not strongly guided to protect ourselves against coronavirus. Wear an N95 paper face mask or a surgical mask, if you think you are sick and should protect others, and if you can find one,

At March 25, 2020 I am resolved to do needful shopping and other needed self-care, only when wearing my respirator. I have prepared the two that I own, one new and one routinely restored as-new with careful soap-and-water scrubbing. With the second respirator, both I and my partner may escape confinement, protected.I know that my respirators are precious. All elements are sold-out, unavailable at Amazon or anywhere else. I must preserve them, safe, for many months. Therefore with rubber bands, attach throw-away covers of facial tissue. Gain a third set of 2091 filters by putting my dirty set through a soapy wash cycle with laundry. They come out dry and with intact structure. Know then that the two new sets of 2091 filters are ample for months of usage, laundered perhaps weekly.

A small square of paper towel will do much good toward protection of others. A cloth over my mouth instead of this would interfere with the respirator seal and surely is not a better idea.

Among things listed as beneficial these days, let's add frequent well-soaped laundry. Let that apply to hospitals and group homes too. I don't see the point in throw-away plastic or paper garb.At 4/23/2020, comment upon experience with this adapted respirator. I wear this mask when grocery shopping and find the unfixed paper-towel filter of exhalation, to be unacceptable.For residents of my shared townhouse community, I have been the outlier to buy and try simple masks of elastic tee shirt material on-offer from Custom Ink. Here is my explanation to those asking for these $2 masks:https://drive.google.com/file/d/1g3SYX97cn-7Tlmd80QtANNEimGL-TW4v/view?usp=sharingThere now, see that Custom Ink has also an ample supply of layered paper masks at twice the cost and in fact much more expensive where one might be disposed after one use.On my next groceries adventure, I will try a Custom Ink cloth mask under my respirator in place of the loose paper towel. The respirator will look extreme and may be unnecessary, but I will do the trial. I have donated two 3M respirators like mine, in Large size purchased in error, at my local fire station. I want to believe more-positive protection is valued by first-responders frequently at-risk.Read: The Real Reason to Wear a Mask, The Atlantic, April 22, 2020This does not conflict with my shared learning and insights.

Saturday, March 14, 2020

I believe that traffic at this blog reflects our national mood with energy conservation.

Will our response to coronavirus and environmental catastrophe, now, accelerate action to do right in our homes? People shut out from jobs will want work, and to do good things.I sure wish Oregon had awakened to the need of a State Bank, taking assets off evil Wall Street. We would then more securely have had means to get out of our mess. In this I give some negative credit to Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler . Here watch a debate of 2020 contenders for Portland Mayor. See this shareable debate as a model for much contention of progressive candidates throughout USA, to gain fresh leadership.See how suppressed interest deters blogging:

Making this public, I challenge myself to blog more,. next to finish a riff about misguided individual investment in green energy absent self interest. I will reimburse on-average $5 per month over 14 months in electricity payments, where they were not consulted. I was rotten. It didn't have to be a decision to be ashamed of. I invested much in attending 2020 International Builders Show. I have much more to share, and more time in-hand..

Wednesday, March 4, 2020

At 2020 International Builders Show I was educated by the team of Rick Arnold and Gary Katz, presenting Problem-free Prefit Doors, as the Katz Roadshow. The half-hour-long demonstration was a rerun for me, and yet I know I need much practice to overcome wrong intuition applied in the only-three doors I have installed so far. At wrap-up, we were offered pencils labeled with a URL, thus:

We were told: Go to the URL on this pencil, where you will see preserved to be viewed for free, all the good information you have learned here. Pass the pencil on to some young person who might win a carpentry job, just by knowing, really knowing, how to hang a prefit door. And I immediately did that, giving my pencil to a young person next to me on the city bus to my hotel that evening. I picked up two replacement pencils the next day.Only now, six weeks later, I have tested whether the URL by itself might give the intended inspiration. Go there, and see.

Recall that "prefit door" is the subject and enter that in the search bar. Then read the full article, (Click this caption.)

Friday, August 30, 2019

Ellen Brown:The Key to a Sustainable Economy Is 5,000 Years OldIn my own words with faulty understanding, read:Where investments are financed by individuals needing repayment in view of risks, opportunity cost and with depreciation of the investment through inflation, something must break. Compound interest does not work for terms beyond fifty years.Catastrophic change is always with us. Within our productive lifetimes, we compensate within the limits of our strength and intelligence, if we are allowed.